The invention relates to a knitting machine of the kind defined in the introductory part of claim 1.
In known knitting machines of this kind (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,351,741) the inserting means and the thread grippers are disposed substantially successively in the direction of transport. For this reason, the thread grippers must be at such a distance from the inserting means that a needle that is knitting will have been retracted again before it is overtaken by the thread gripper. Since furthermore the thread grippers must be situated lower than the tips of the extended needles in order to assure a reliable insertion of the threads, the thread carriers must have a relatively great structural length and successive knitting systems must be disposed at relatively great intervals.
Another problem in the delivery of threads to knitting machines of the kind mentioned in the beginning is that the thread ends released by the thread grippers at the beginning of the knit often come within the reach of the first needles that knit and therefore are also knitted into the beginning of the knit, thereby spoiling a portion of the knit along a width corresponding to the length of the thread end. To prevent this, thread carriers are known which have inserting means and thread grippers disposed successively in the transport direction, with which vacuum nozzles are associated at the beginning of the knit (German Auslegeschrift No. 2,325,747) or mechanically or electromagnetically operated grippers are associated (Swiss Pat. No. 427,122). Such systems are relatively complicated and troublesome, and particularly they interfere with the simple changing of the width of the knit or the installation of automatically operating devices for increasing and decreasing.
The invention is addressed to the problem of simplifying and improving the thread transport and the thread carriers in a knitting machine of the kind defined above, in order thus to achieve a great convenience of operation and permit the width of the knit to be changed by simple means, as in the case, for example, of increasing or decreasing. Furthermore, the thread transport is to assure that the rest of the desired functions of a thread carrier, such as for example holding the thread ends out of the reach of the needles when the thread ends have been released at the beginning of the knit, floating the threads at any desired point in the knit, cutting out a particular thread carrier, providing needle latch openers and latch holder parts, as well as the easy replacement of the thread grippers, doing so with simple means, without impairing the convenience of operation or diminishing the reliability of the insertion of the threads at high knitting speeds.
The distinguishing features of claim 1 are provided for the solution of this problem.
In accordance with the invention, prior to their insertion into the first active needles, i.e., needles which are to be active in the knit, the threads or the thread ends held between the inserters and the thread grippers are disposed, not lengthwise of the needle beds but transversely thereto. This results in a number of advantages, explained in the description given below, with regard to the various functions of the thread carriers and to the thread feed in general.
The invention can be applied to all circular knitting machines and especially to flat knitting machines in which the problems mentioned above are encountered. The invention is applied with special advantage to knitting machines which are described in German Offenegungsschrift Nos. 2,531,705, 2,531,734, 2,531,762 and 2,701,652.
Additional advantageous features of the invention will be found in the subordinate claims.